China's railways ministry has apologised for the high-speed train accident on 23 July near Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. Photograph: Str/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese authorities face growing public fury over the high-speed train crash that killed at least 38 people and injured 192, with the disposal of wreckage and attempts to control coverage of the incident prompting allegations of a cover-up.

The railways ministry has apologised for the collision in eastern Zhejiang province and announced an inquiry. Spokesman Wang Yongping added: "China's high-speed rail technology is up to date and up to standard, and we still have faith in it."

Internet users attacked the government's response to the disaster after authorities muzzled media coverage and urged reporters to focus on rescue efforts. "We have the right to know the truth!" wrote one microblogger called kangfu xiaodingdang. "That's our basic right!"

Leaked propaganda directives ordered journalists not to investigate the causes and footage emerged of bulldozers shovelling dirt over carriages.

Wang, the railways spokesman, said no one could or would bury the story. He said a colleague told him the wreckage was needed to fill in a muddy ditch to make rescue efforts easier.

But Hong Kong University's China Media Project said propaganda authorities have ordered media not to send reporters to the scene, not to report too frequently and not to link the story to high-speed rail development. "There must be no seeking after the causes [of the accident], rather, statements from authoritative departments must be followed," said one directive. Another ordered: "No calling into doubt, no development [of further issues], no speculation, and no dissemination [of such things] on personal microblogs!"

Officials also ordered more coverage of "extremely moving" stories, such as blood donations, and said the overall theme should be "great love in the face of great disaster".

Beijing sees high-speed rail as a matter of national prestige, highlighting China's development, but critics appear to see the disaster as symptomatic of the country's problems. Internet users repeatedly described the crash as a man-made, not a natural disaster, and blamed officials.

"When a country is so corrupt that one lightning strike can cause a train crash … none of us is exempt. China today is a train rushing through a lightning storm … we are all passengers," ran one of the most frequently forwarded comments on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo service.

The breakneck pace of the massive project had already caused safety concerns. In just a few years Beijing has constructed the world's largest high-speed network, with 10,500 miles completed or under construction.

"Overly rapid development has caused safety issues. This is the result of the irrational behaviour of the former leadership of the ministry of railways," said Professor Zhao Jian, a prominent critic of high-speed rail at Beijing Jiaotong University.

Six carriages were derailed and four of those plunged 20 to 30 metres from a viaduct in Saturday's crash, when a train stalled after being struck by lightning and was rammed by another one behind it. State media said the power failure knocked out an electronic safety system that should have alerted the second train to the problem.

Zhao said the trains should have been equipped with an automatic braking system and that dispatchers should also have been able to halt the second vehicle.

Chinese media had already highlighted the problem of lightning strikes after they halted several other trains earlier this month – including on the recently opened Beijing-Shanghai link.

The state-run English language Global Times newspaper said the accident should be "a bloody lesson for the entire railway industry in China", but said the crash should lead to "safer, not slower, railway transportation".

The Zhejiang crash involved the first-generation high-speed trains, launched four years ago, which have a top speed of 155 mph. The former railways minister said newer trains would travel at 217mph, but after his ousting that was cut to 186mph amid safety and financial concerns.

China's railway system has been regarded as having a generally good safety record, although 72 people died in 2008 when an express train from Beijing to Qingdao derailed.

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